s, Marinus, Plinius,
and Strabo, calculated sixty-two and one-half miles to each degree.
Thirdly we declare that there are two methods of procedure in this
demarcation. The first is according to the conjectures and experiments
made during many repeated voyages by skilled pilots. This method has
been followed by all the writers on cosmography. The other most sure
method is by proceeding in a northern altitude from north to south,
and in an altitude from east to west, or by taking the east and west
longitude. This is a difficult task, as this assembly is aware, and
as each one has declared, and setting forth many methods for doing
it that appear feasible to them, and finding fault with them all.
First let us examine this first method, and then the second. As to the
first we must place the line of demarcation three hundred and seventy
leagues from the island of San Antonio. This number of leagues is
equal to twenty-two degrees and almost nine miles. Reckoning degrees
from that parallel and from the island of San Antonio there is a
distance of one hundred and eighty leagues to Cape Verde which equals
ten degrees. Therefore it is thirty-two degrees from Cape Verde to
the line of demarcation. We assert then, that by graduating these
degrees in this manner, the Malucos fall within the boundaries of
our lord the Emperor, however we may make the demarcation. For if we
wish to determine it after the customary models and where voyages
have been made up to this time, to wit, calculating five hundred
and forty leagues from Cape Guardafuui to Cape Comori, five hundred
and sixty leagues from Cape Comori to Malaca, and four hundred and
twenty leagues from Malaca to the Malucos, in which way the voyage
is always made, not only do the Malucos fall within his Majesty's
demarcation but also Malaca and Zamatra. And if, perchance, we wish to
determine the demarcation in accordance with the recently corrected
Portuguese maps, which reckon a much less number of leagues between
the above-named places, to wit, from Cape Guardafuui to Cape Comori,
Cape Comori to Malaca, and from Malaca to the Malucos, we still
assert that the Malucos fall within the demarcation of our lord the
Emperor. For according to these maps corrected recently in this way,
the demarcation or line of demarcation falls near Gilolo, an island
near the Malucos. This is so on the plane surface of their map. When
this plane surface is reduced to a spherical one, because of the
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